Lt Colonel Charles Gauci, RAMC (Retd), president of the British Legion (Malta GC Branch), was recently awarded the Order of the League of Mercy at Mansion House, London, by Lord Robert Balchin Lingfield, president of the board of trustees of the order and knight president of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor of the UK in the presence of the board of trustees, the Sheriff of London and Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia (descendant of Queen Victoria).

The order was founded in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by a Royal Charter issued by the Queen-Empress Victoria in 1899. It was instigated by her son, the Prince of Wales (later King-Emperor Edward VII), who became its first Grand President. 

Awards in the Order of the League of Mercy are made to long-service volunteers in the UK health service and are routinely published in the London Gazette.  

Dr Gauci has been involved in the field of pain medicine since the late 1970s, first while an officer in the British Army and later in the NHS. He has helped many patients, including cancer sufferers, to manage their pain. 

Throughout his career he has carried out a significant amount of pro bono work in pain management, both in the UK and overseas. He is also a member of the World Institute of Pain, which involves travel all over the world teaching medical colleagues the complicated techniques of interventional pain therapy.